This guide is an introduction into Javazons. The purpose of this guide is to create a character which will kill cows in a flash, but at the same time be able to kill anywhere in Sanctuary, Hell Chaos Sanctuary included. I will include options for PvP builds. Unlike my previous guide, I will have suggestions given to me by other players for PvP as well as PvM. However I maintain that I am not an expert dueler and you should remember that when you read my guide.

A warning: this guide involves lots of planning. I spend a lot of time before I build my characters deciding exactly how much strength and dexterity, how much resistances, etc etc, if you do not like to create your character in this way, simply skim over all my commentary, and look only at the numbers and the items. I won’t be offended

This is where I start. I go through and decide what items I have/want/will use and then factor in the bonuses. For an all purpose build, you will want to have several sets of gear, for different purposes. I will endeavor to provide for you good choices.

Vampire Gaze is what you want for dueling. Duel leech and DR are a very good combination.

Steelskull is a great helmet for magic finding and general PvM. It can substitute for vampire gaze if you do not have one in duels.

Valkyrie Wing is a popular helm as well. Although I personally do not favor this helm, its 2 to all skills are very tempting to those who wish to pump high level LF. Also the run/walk speed is addictive.

Rockstopper is a lesser-known, still good helmet. With resistances, dr and vitality, this helmet is great for both cowing and non-cow PvM

Harlequin Crest is very popular, although I only recommend it if you want to magic find and already have mana leech. A Steelskull for magic finding is just as good.

60 IAS armor is my favorite. I am not rich enough to afford an ed/IAS armor, so I settle for IAS. As I will cover later, IAS will play am important role when you start jabbing. This armor is better for dueling against certain characters. However this is very much all-purpose armor.

Shaftstop is an armor I used on my older javazons, before I came across my 60 IAS armor. 60 life and 30% dr is very nice, this is great for certain duels, or all around PvM. If you are PvM character only, in where you don’t duel, this may be used for your primary armor.

Lionhart is a rune word spelled hel-lum-fal. Great armor with great mods. Resistances, +all attributes, ed. Another nice thing is that it is customizable so that you can find an armor that looks good.

Smoke is another rune word spelled nef-lum. 20% faster hit recovery(FHR) and a whopping 50 to all resists make this a good anti-sorc and non-cow PvM armor.

Skulders Ire is probably the best armor for magic finding in cows. Scaling magic find and 1 to all skills makes this a much-desired item.

Tal Rashas armor is my favorite armor for magic finding out of cows, high resists and high defense, coupled with the set bonuses for magic finding make this armor very valuable.

Twitchthroe is a good armor if you wish to keep your dexterity low and your blocking high, but there are better armors out there.

Stormshield is the shield of choice for both PvM and PvP. High blocking, faster blocking, and a huge 35% damage reduced, along with solid cold and lightning resistance make this shield worth the price.

Moser’s blessed circle is a nice little shield with decent blocking, but high resists and 2 sockets. With 2 p diamonds, this shield can add a ton of resistances.

Whitsan’s guard has more blocking than any other shield out there. Less dexterity means more life.

Lidless wall is a popular shield of cow-only javazons as the mana/kill removes the requirement of mana leech. As well as the +1 to skills.

Rhyme shield is a runeword spelled shael eth. Drop into a trolls nest or monarch and you have a shield that adds mf, high blocking, and cannot be frozen. Great for magic finders as you don’t need Raven Frost,

War travelers are my favorite boots. With magic find, increased damage, vitality and strength, this boot is a melee characters dream.

Silkweave boots are good for cow levels, and might be useful if you throw a lot in duels. It raises your maximum mana, and gives 5 to mana/kill.

Waterwalks add dexterity and life, making them a good set of boots for dueling, although there are better alternatives.

Aldurs boots are a popular choice for the 40% faster running and 50 to life.

Immortal Kings boots are a better choice for a javazon, as they have the same amount of run speed, but add to attack rating as well.

Rare/crafted boots are often better than uniques if you can find them. Look for resistances, lightning being most important, run speed, and maybe magic find. crafted blood boots have life leech which may make them a good boot if you are a bit lacking.

An un-duped Raven Frost needs to be one of your rings. The only exception is if you have the ‘cannot be frozen’ mod from another items. If you use rhyme, cham rune in armor, Trangs belt, Death's Sash, Spirit Shroud, Duriel's Shell, etc. the ring is also important for the added dexterity to keep your blocking at maximum.

Stone of Jordan is a Stone of Jordan. You may find this ring to your liking, if you’re obsessed with high level LF (not important). Otherwise, forgo this ring for better.

Bul Kathos Wedding Band. Definitely better. Vitality, although not THAT important for a PvM build, helps to give a comfortable buffer so you can do stupid things. Like dive into the pack of cows to snag the unique Monarch that just dropped.

Nagelring. These are great alternatives if you have enough leech and Cannot be frozen.

Rare/crafted rings. Look for Life Leech, lightning resist and maybe strength or such.

Cat's Eye is my favorite amulet. With run/walk, dexterity, and IAS, you have everything you need in an amulet, short or resistances and skills.

Mara kaleidoscope is the amulet that covers the skills and resistances. If you don’t mind running slower, don’t mind attacking slower, and don’t mind pumping more points into dexterity to keep your blocking at 75%.

Atma's Scarab is a very okay amulet. The amp charges would help incredibly for bosses and such, as you will be jabbing them to death, but otherwise, there are better amulets.

Crescent moon is a great amulet if you can’t get enough leech, or want to wear some more mf.

Highlord's Wrath is a very popular amulet as well. with IAS, + skill and massive lightning resist, this amulet is great for sorceress duels.

Skip this section if you already know what you want to wear. For those of you who cannot afford to mix and match, I have included this section. Here I will give you what are, in my opinion, strong setups and tell you for what purpose they are strongest. This section can help you to pick your gear before you start your character, which is important. These are by no means the only setups available, simply the more common. We will go ahead and assume you are using Titans Revenge as your weapon.

This is where you will spend much of your time. If your goal is simply to hit level 99 with a javazon, you will spend ALL of your time here. The following is a setup which will allow you to clear cow levels, short of the king and some boss cows along with providing magic find. This setup focuses on +skills and then some MF.

In this section, I will tell you which skills I believe you should use and why. I will give you a few opinions which I have picked up from other players and give them to you. If I give out your advice and do not credit it to you, please contact me and I will correct it immediately. I am going to assume that you know to put 1 point into prerequisites.

Passive Tree

These numbers I give you are the final skill levels AFTER your gear bonuses. Example: I say ‘raise your dodge to level 12’ and you have titans revenge which add 2 to all skills. You raise your dodge to level 10, and then titans brings it up to 12.

Dodge – 12 for PvM, max for PvP

Avoid – 7 for PvM, max for PvP

Evade – 0,1, or 12 for PvM, 12 for PvP

Valkyrie – 0 or 1 for PvM, 1 for PvP

Critical Strike – 8 for PvM, 8 or max for PvP

Penetrate – as needed, extra points might go here

Pierce – 12 for PvM, 1 for PvP(for leveling)

Javelin and Spear tree

These numbers I give you are the skill levels BEFORE your gear bonuses. So when I say 20 to jab, put 20 points into jab.

Begin the game by clearing the blood moor in a full game. When you are able, move on. Keep advancing through act 1 until you hit the black marsh. This is the first area where you will want to stay and level your character. A javazon should be able to handle this area at around level 8 or 9 in a full game. Before then play solo or in smaller games, use whatever weapon you wish, it doesn’t matter at this point.

As you level up, put points into prerequisites for skills you will need down the road. You may feel free to distribute extra points as you need, although at this point it might be a good idea to hold onto them for a while. Hire a mercenary to help you.

Level until you get to about 12, and then kill Andariel, I suggest joining a party, it always makes it more fun and a bit easier.

After Andariel, move on to act 2. you may choose to hire a new mercenary, the choice is yours. Level in the sewers until you are about level 15-18, and then move on. Progress through the game until you get to the arcane sanctuary. This is the next area where you will stay to level. you can level here well until about level 25. Then kill Duriel

Critical strike should have a few points now, along with jab and dodge. Avoid as well.

I would suggest joining a party for act 3, although its your decision. If you want a mercenary for your endgame, I would suggest a fire or ice sorcerer so buy one now.

Once you hit level 30, max lightning fury immediately, unless you are a PvP character in which case you will want dodge, and then jab maxed.

Act 4 is difficult, would definitely suggest a party. If you are by yourself, I would try to be close or beyond level 30.

In act 5 you can level a great deal. Begin with the bloody foothills, and then move on to Baal runs. Then cows.

At this point, you will want to work on maxing your killing skills first, and then your passive skills.

You have an advantage over many builds as a javazon. You have both ranged and melee attacks. Take advantage of this, try to bunch your enemies together, kill them all, and then run in to pick off the stragglers. In the chaos sanctuary, keep your distance and throw a lot of spears, be very careful of iron maiden, and be careful not to get surrounded.

I constantly see javazons throwing LF at every single cow they find. You should only throw LF when you see a cow part of a herd. Otherwise break out your melee skill and lay them out. Let’s get started:

Alright so you join a cow game. Feel free to grab the leg, or just wait for someone to get it. I try to always get it to make sure the person doesn’t snag it and leave. I usually also ask who can make the game and then trade it to them on the screen to prevent people from snagging the leg and leaving.

Once inside, I usually just run away from everyone so they will not interfere with my herding. When someone looks like they are being overrun by cows I will toss a few javelins on the way past them to help them out. You may have to actually ask people to leave you alone.

Now that you’re in enemy territory here is how to actually herd the cows:)

The first thing you want to do is decide how many cows you can herd. This depends on your computer. My record is half of a small cow level. This causes tremendous lag from the server. I run a P4 1400 with 256 RAM on a T3 connection. A slower connection means smaller herds. Start small and build up to what you can handle.

Once you’ve decided how many cows the tricky part is getting the attentions of the cows you want to kill without calling all of the cows in your area. Run in between packs of cows that you wish to herd. They will start walking towards you trying to kill. Run between them as many times as possible to bring them close together. This is where having low evade comes in handy, I weave in between them until a few of them attack me. You should have a good sized pack in a few seconds. Run around the entire herd, stay as close as you can comfortably, to pack them tighter, then run away until you can see only the closest few cows of the pack on screen. Let loose your LF until the pack thins out. Tighten the pack again if there are a lot or else run in and finish them off with melee attacks.

I am no incredible dueler, but I have picked up a few things while playing. I am not going to give you a class by class strategy list, as this is primarily a PvM guide. Here is what I know (no laughing):)

Versus Melee

Switch to walk, when you run your defense drops to 0. approach the character and try to jab him to death. If you are having trouble connecting or he is a barbarian, switch back to run, and throw lightning BOLTS at him, not fury. Use plague javelin if you wish.

Versus Ranged

Make sure you have a lot of run speed. If the character is using guided arrow, remember to never run in a straight line. Always zig-zag or spiral. Either run in for the kill, or throw LB to keep the pressure off of you.

General

Your tanking abilities are limited. Don’t get cocky, cocky gets dead. Lead then with your throw. Don’t throw at where they are, throw at where they will be. Know when to run. you can outrun guided arrows if you need to, you will sometimes. Know when not to run. sometimes you can close in even with the GA flying. Against Amazons, you will want 100% IAS, in order to dodge/evade lock them so they can't run away and can't attack you. fighting melee against other classes you will want max PDR.

Other than that, I know nothing about dueling. If you wish to add in strategies I will be more than happy to add in your section and credit you where due.

Thanks

I would like to say thank you to the Amazon forum, for helping me with revisions and suggestions, the forum admins for putting up with me, and diabloii.net for hosting the forums and this guide.